Steeplechase
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Steeplechase. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a horserace run not on a course of smooth, flat turf, but across the open country, over hedges, ditches, walls, and whatever other obstacles lie in the way. This variety of sport seems to have had its origin (traditionally) in the frolic of a merry party of fox hunters, who agreed to race in a straight line toward a steeple visible in the distance, an event which is recorded to have happened in Ireland in 1803; further particulars of it, however, are not known. Nevertheless this was not the earliest race of the kind. One took place in Ireland in 1752 from the church of Buttevant (Cork co.) to the church of St. Leger, a distance of 4½ miles. In the year 1816 a ride in England of 20 miles across country against ainst time (under one hour and and nine minutes) was regarded as something extraordinary, though about that time steeplechase matches were coming into fashion with the young fox hunters of the day. The sport began to assume its existing shape about the year 1831. In 1866 the Grand National Hunt Committee was formed for the purpose of laying down rules and regulations for the proper conducting of steeplechase meetings. The principal race in this class of sport in the United Kingdom is the Grand National, which was instituted at Liverpool the headquarters of steeplechasing in 1839; it is now run on different courses in different years. The Meadowbrook Club is the pioneer of steeplechasing in the United States.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a cross country race for horses and riders. The name is thought to have originated from the custom of racing to a distant church steeple, regardless of intervening ditches, dikes, fields, and streams. The first to touch the church with his riding whip is the winner. It is an exciting, dangerous sort of race, said to be popular in England, especially at fairs or on market day. Each rider is at liberty to take a roundabout way at the risk of losing the race to a more reckless horseman. Variations have been introduced, such as racing to a distant object and back again, setting up flags at certain points between which the riders must pass, etc. See Horseracing
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's noted in 1921 that the Grand National "is now run on different courses in different years" he wartime substitute races were held at Gatwick from 1916 to 1918; the race returned to Aintree in 1919 and has been run there ever since, missed only for the Second World War and the pandemic year of 2020. Aiton's 1910 picture of riders picking their own line to a distant steeple, the winner touching the church with his whip, had already vanished from the regulated sport: modern steeplechasing is run on enclosed courses over standardised birch fences, with the loose cross-country spirit surviving mainly in amateur point-to-points. The Grand National Hunt Committee that Collier's credits with the 1866 rulebook was absorbed into the Jockey Club, and the great fixture of the calendar is now the Cheltenham Festival, whose Gold Cup was first run in 1924, after both these accounts. Animal welfare has become the dominant issue: Aintree's fences have been repeatedly lowered and softened, and in 2024 the National's field was cut from 40 runners to 34.
Written for this edition, 2026.